Switching to twice a day feeding
Buster will be 6 months old in a week. I am in the process of changing his feeding to twice a day. He used to get 1 1/2 cups at 6:30 - 12:30 - 6:30. But lately he has been losing interest in his lunch, he would eat little bit and then go back to sleep. I thought it was time to change to twice a day feeding. And I divided his food to 2 1/2 cups per feeding at 6:30 - 5:30. He finished everything, but he has very soft stools, I dont think its diarrhea. I have noticed that he gets very hungry by the time i give him his evening meal. I tried mixing his puppy food with white rice and homemade yogurt. I took him for a walk early this morning before his breakfast, and his poop was good. And this morning i went back to his original three times a day routine. I feed him Fromm large breed puppy food. I want to introduce adult food very soon. Should I do that, even if he has soft stools? Thanks Arti |
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| none of our sheepys have liked the larger breed large lumps of kibble-they either bolted it and were sick or just didn't want all that chewing or whatever reason-when put on regular adult kibble they have been great. Soft stool often indicates to much food as in going from 3 to 2 larger meals, we still at nearly 3 years old give Sprocket 3 meals a day-he only has kibble to eat or gets upset tum so no shapes or whatever at lunch, just a small amount of kibble then the rest divided between breaky and dinner. There are no hard and fast rules as to what you must do-it's your dog and as long as healthy etc your doing ok. I am lucky enough to be at home at lunch so can do 3 meals-if you can't be there at lunch time and have to do 2 meals you will proberbly find the stools sort them selves out after a couple of days when the tummy gets used to the amount.x |
| Too much food was my thought as well also smaller kibbles work for us too. Don't forget teething continues so could be mouth is a bit tender right now, try moistening food a bit with vegetable broth or warm water. Dilute chicken stock is good too if there's no poultry allgergy. |
| Ok. I went back to three times feeding. He seemed to do fine. But a couple of times he threw up all his food, within 30 mins. He did eat reallyfast and drank a lot of water. I think he threw up because he ate really fast, right after he played witb another sheepie. Should i take him to the vet? How do i slow him down? |
| We started limiting the amount of water Oscar gets at one time, because he would drink the bowl until it was empty, and then toss his cookies. I only give him 10 - 12 oz at once, and when he drinks that, I refill the bowl. (We have been doing this since he was 3 months old.) Sounds like your puppy might have played too close to eating time, and then drank too much water. Oscar has always eaten very quickly. The only thing that worked for us was our switch to canned food. I smash it down around the bowl, and it slows him down considerably. We continued to feed Oscar three times a day until he was a year old, but he always ate every meal like he had never seen food! If your pup is skipping meals on his own, he might be self-regulating, which isn't a bad thing. I would only be concerned if your pup was too thin, or not thriving while skipping meals. (Oscar takes so many meds now that he gets fed four times per day, and he is a very happy boy!  )One of the reasons that we feed smaller meals multiple times a day is to prevent bloat, a painful and often fatal condition where the dog's stomach flips in place. Dogs with large chests and narrower waists are prone to it, like OES. One of the other ways to prevent bloat is to keep the dog calm for an hour before or after feeding. I am bringing this up because you mentioned that your puppy had been romping within a half hour of eating, and this is one of the risk factors. Laurie and Oscar |
| Buster is doing ok now. HE still gobbles up food. He is 6 months old now. I feed 2 1/2 cups twice a day. He has been growing up really fast. And I always worry if I am feeding him too much? is 5 cups too much for a 6 month old? The back of his food bag suggestes I give him 2 3/4 cups. |
Hello. I don't know how big your cup is to mine but we sometimes have to use a plastic pint class when middle son has wandered off with pot and it's about the same. 5 cups a day of that size I think is to much even for a fast growing lad-they are always hungry-. I would go more by the bag amounts for his now weight or they sometimes say-"size of breed expected to be" and we have always roughly gone by the medium to large,= a lab/german shepheard rather than the large= great dane. Sprocket like most got/gets spoilt and may have had the "odd extra bit" but I think he was on 3 pots a day when 3 meals and down to 1 1/2 when 2 meals-I can't remember the weight of the meal now,( around 15 oz a meal could have been) anyway was 1 1/2 pot twice a day and then we strted to cut it down to 1 pot twice a day but then gave him half a pot at lunch time because the bonios/shapes didn't agree with him. Hope that make sense? I would say to much food if your pot the same size as mine. Allyson. x   |
| I think 5 cups a day is too much. Steel is headed towards 5 mo. and eats 3 cups a day. How much to feed is a fine science! Haha! My 4 yr. old 65lb. eats 1 1/2 cups a day and has the most beautiful waist line you have ever seen, any more than that and she is a chub! My 2 yr. old 37lb. eats the same - he is a bit hyperactive so apparently needs the extra to maintain the same beautiful waistline. I am very cautious having once had an overweight babe and always having a multi dog home. Having to have one on a diet and stare into those eyes - only one set of eyes of a restricted food babe is a sad thing! My understanding from my vet has always been it really doesn't matter how little or much you feed, you and your dog will figure it out. The most important thing is the feeling of their ribs and their waist line. If your dog feels hungry split the amount to small amounts throughout the day so they think they are getting more. |
| 5 cups a day is alot. Oscar grew to be 110 lbs and he never ate more than 4 cups per day. How is his stool? If it is soft at all, it could be a result of too much volume. I never go by the back of a food bag for a feeding amount. Just remember, they are trying to sell you food! Laurie and Oscar |
| My St.B, Pyrs, Newf never ate 5 cups! Today's high quality food is nutrient packed, you don't need to feed much. If you are feeding Old Roy or other crap maybe. Each dog is different, best to watch their body size instead of reading bags. You want to keep them lean, not skinny, but with a defined waist when viewed from the top. To slow down the eating, put a large rock in the bowl so the dog has to work around the sides to get the food. There are special toys that spill out food, making the dog work for their meal. Treats; try baby carrots and other veggies. Kdog like apple........she'd eat the whole thing but only gets a slice. It's a treat for her. |
| How is the feeding going now? Have you managed to cut down a bit or did you find that you had a much smaller cup than mine? Dogs can go quite a few days/wks without food so the "I haven't eaten for ages" look from his must be ignored for his health and back legs-to much fat on them put strain on dogs just the same as humans. Allyson.x |
| Thanks to everyone for clearing my doubt. I did cut down Busters food to 4 cups a day. I also give him 1/4cup of home made plain yogurt with his am and pm meal time. I believe this helps his stomach. His stools are better now. Allyson - I use a 1/2 cup, measuring cup. I am not sure how it compares to your measurement. I am planning of contacting his breeder, who is also a vet. She told me that Buster is the runt of the litter. I am curious to know how his brothers and sister are doing. Our current Vet suggested feeding him 2 1/2 cups morning and 2 1/2 cups evening. That is why i went with that amount. Buster plays another 5 year old sheepdog, Sadie, who weighs 65 pounds. It looked Buster was catching up to her, and I was alarmed. He is still little bit shorter than her. Sadie's owner mentioned that since Buster's paws are huge, he is going to be 100 pounds. Once again thanks for all the advice. Hats off! to the person who started this forum and all the active participants. |
| Totally agree that the forum is a great place even if you don't have a problem or a worry. Our last sheepie was large big, as you say the paws were huge-he grew into them!! People do worry about food amounts but al long as there are no ribs sticking out type of thin our vet always says they prefer a slimmer dog as better for the dog and better to "feel" the dog if need be for any problems. You sound like you have it all under control.xx |
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